Emerging pollutants are compounds of natural or synthetic origin that enter the environment with increasing frequency due to the spread of human activities. Because of their potentially negative effects on the ecosystem, human and animal health it is important to develop reliable analytical methods for their determination. Emerging pollutants are found in trace amounts in the environment, with concentrations from ng/L to μg/L, therefore sample pretreatment is a crucial part of the analytical procedure. In recent years, solid phase extraction (SPE), which is suitable for compounds with diverse physicochemical properties, has been widely utilized.
I developed the method using ion-exchange solid phase extraction for 20 selected emerging pollutants that belong to the groups of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, cosmetics, food additives and industrial chemicals. UHPLC-DAD method was used to monitor the results of SPE optimization at higher analyte concentrations (μg/L) to select the most suitable extraction column for further optimization, which was performed with UHPLC-MS/MS method at lower analyte concentrations (ng/L). In this study, pH of the sample, pH and effect of washing solution, as well as concentration, pH and strength of the elution solvent were optimized. Using the optimized SPE method combined with UHPLC-MS/MS, I was able to determine 16 of 20 selected analytes and 13 of them had satisfactory recoveries (higher than 40%). The linear range of optimized method was for all 16 analytes between 5 μg/L and 35 μg/L (R2 ≥ 0.990) and the reproducibility of the method was satisfactory for 14 target compounds (RSD < 20%).
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